Abstract Expressionism is a key influence in all of Michele’s artwork, whether it is done in oil or acrylic, or multimedia. As an artist, Michele tries to always imbue her work with a sense of mystery and mood, something that will stir deep personal feelings within the person viewing it.

In the past ten years, Michele has had numerous solo and group shows locally, including shows at Providence Gallery and Red Sky Gallery. Her artwork can be found in both private and corporate collections.

In the last three years, Michele has begun teaching art to adults in her home studio, four nights a week. It gives her great pleasure helping others unleash their artistic creativity. And it continuously pushes her as an artist.

Jenny EllisAsheville, North Carolinawww.sittin-pretty.com

Jenny lives in Asheville, NC. With a cumulative experience of over 30 years in the fabric arts, design and furniture fields, she has blended her skill sets into creating Sittin’ Pretty, LLC.

The art of turning discarded, broken chairsinto amazingly new and fresh furnishings has always been pleasing to her. Jenny loves the interesting lines, hand carved legs and arms - details that you can’t get today at big box stores. These old chairs carry silent histories with whispers of elegance and grace. Restoring old chairs has become her passion. Her professional career in high-end dressmaking shines through in the details and designs of her pieces. And now she can be in style and “Green” at the same time.

Jenny enjoys bringing new life back into chairs and home furnishings, adding personality and an element of surprise where there once was none. Lately, adding New Frames to her line has been just as fun of a hunt. And she does her own Upholstery.

Joanne Geisel, Creating Waves, 11” x 14”

Joanne Q. GeiselWilmington, North Carolinawww.JoanneGeisel.com

“Most of my paintings reflect a moment in time. On those special days, I find joy in capturing the sights, sounds, and feelings of the unique, never duplicated moment. I assess the composition, the values, the proportions and color, all the while maintaining the initial feeling that attracted me to my subject.”

Award winning artist, Joanne Q. Geisel describes herself as an America Impressionist painter whose original oil paintings depict the Carolina coast, its beaches, skies, marshes and cottages. Joanne is on the faculty of the Cameron Art Museum School and teaches in many other venues. Her paintings can be found in a number of North Carolina galleries including City Art Gallery, Greenville; Baxter’s Fine Art, New Bern; Eclipse Gallery, Wilmington; All About Art, Bald Head Island and Lantana’s Gallery, Southport, and several corporate and many private collections.

Anita Laudone Harley, Eggs

Anita Laudone HarleyJohns Island, South Carolinawww.anitaharley.com

Primarily a watercolorist, Ms. Laudone Harley works figuratively with shapes and spots of color in the tradition of Bonnard, Vuillard and Sargent. She endeavors to integrate the decorative with the authority of human emotion. The subtlety of watercolor draws the viewer in close, and its seeming ephemerality is evocative of memory. The connection is at once intimate and fragile yet powerful. The quotidian nature of the subject serves to heighten its emotional universality. Recognizing the humor, the joy, the travail, the melancholy – the spectrum of our condition -- the viewer is asked to consider that, while we are alone, we are profoundly connected by experience and empathy.

Juried Exhibitions include a solo show of 40 works at the University of Connecticut Stamford Art Gallery and in the Southeast, at ARTFIELDS, Piccolo Spoleto; Carolina’s Got Art, the South Carolina Watermedia Society.

Janine MedlinCharlotte, North Carolinajaninemedlinfineart.com

“It’s not so much about learning to paint as it is about learning to see.”

This is one of the first lessons of painting that set Janine on the path of learning to see beyond the obvious, into an object or scene. She employs color, contrast, and texture to reflect what she feels from the subject.

Themes in Janine’s work offer a sense of calm and rest to allow the viewer to enter in to a brief respite from the busy and often chaotic world. Her composition draws the viewer into the setting. She creates movement with heavy brush and palette knife strokes, complimented with the play of colors and light and shadow.

Her work is currently represented by Providence Gallery in Charlotte, NC, The Atelier Gallery in Charleston, SC, Cecil + Finch in Atlantic Beach, Slate Interiors, and Arthouse Charlotte Art Consultancy. Her work was twice selected to be in shows at the Duke Mansion. She has been featured in Charlotte Living Magazine, Charlotte Home and Garden, Scoop Charlotte, and Baby & Child.

She creates paintings of figures and faces. This can be either people or wildlife. The emotional impact of a portrait is just as essential as the image. “The painting is exactly right when it’s as if the essence of that person or animal actually enters the room.” say Cason. It’s very important for her to convey the intensity of what the person or animal is feeling in a single moment in time.

Peggy Vineyard, an award-winning artist in Houston, Texas, and Wilmington, NC, began her love of art at a young age. Following careers in teaching elementary school and art, counseling, and real estate in Houston, Texas, she finally became a full-time artist (her life’s ambition), when she and her husband retired to Wilmington, NC in 2012. Her paintings in watercolor and acrylics are non-objective/abstract works which reflect her love of nature and her surroundings where she explores color, light, and shapes.

Her paintings manifest a definitive versatility in subject which produces a diverse portfolio from impressionistic flowers to abstract paintings created from her intuition and imagination. There are many layers of underpainting that allow ideas and images to emerge which transform what the paintings and painter wants to express.